Intelligent network messaging agent and method

ABSTRACT

A method and system for consolidating multiple mailboxes into a single universal mailbox. The system comprises an agent, a user database, an application database and a mail repository. The agent searches a user database to determine the list of messaging systems the user subscribes to. The agent then recalls from the application database the procedures for accessing the messaging systems and logs onto each messaging system in turn to retrieve any new messages. The agent notifies the user of new messages according to a predefined notification method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to messaging systems and, in particular, a systemand method for retrieving and consolidating messages from variousmessaging services.

2. Description of the Related Art

Presently, many voice-mail and e-mail users have multiple accounts foreach type of messaging service, for example, e-mail accounts with atleast one internet service provider, and one or two business e-mail andvoice-mail services. These e-mail and voice-mail services are usuallystored in separate mailboxes in different messaging services. In orderto retrieve messages, send messages, reply or conduct other business,users must access each individual mailbox in turn. These mailboxestypically have different access methods, different devices, differentauthentication procedures, different feature sets, and different userinterfaces.

Attempts have been made to create a unified messaging system thatprovides for a single electronic mailbox for different types ofmessages. These attempts have been limited to a premise-based exchange(“PBX”) which interconnects digital telephones and personal computers. APBX typically provides voice messaging service and electronic mailmessaging service. Attempts have been made to route new messages fromthe internal voice messaging service and electronic mail messagingservice to a system processor within the PBX thus consolidating a user'smessages within the PBX. Such attempts to create a unified messagingsystem may work within a PBX where all activities occur within oneswitching system; however, such a premise-based messaging system has nomeans for detecting messages that are external to the PBX, nor does apremise-based messaging system have the capability of retrievingmessages from external messaging services. Thus, users must stillperiodically log onto each external mailboxes to check whether or notthat system has any messages for the users.

It is therefore desirable to have an intelligent network messaging agentthat is capable of polling various messaging services a user subscribesto, retrieving all new messages, saving the new messages in a singlemail repository for a later retrieval by the user, and notifying theuser of the new messages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention features a method and system for retrieving andconsolidating messages from various messaging services that areindependent from one another.

In one aspect, the invention features a method of retrieving messagesfrom a predefined list of messaging systems on behalf of a usercomprising the steps of retrieving a message from a predefined messagingsystem, storing the message in a single repository, and notifying theuser of the presence of the message in the single repository.

In another aspect, the invention features a system for retrievingmessages from a predefined list of messaging systems on behalf of a userincluding a means for retrieving a message on behalf of a user from apredefined messaging system, a means for storing the message in a singlerepository, and a means for notifying the user of the presence of themessage in the single repository.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of an intelligentnetwork messaging agent in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart depicting the steps involved in retrievingmessages from various messaging services on behalf of a user accordingto the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 shows a simplified intelligent network messaging agent suitablefor use in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Theintelligent network messaging agent is an independent network, not apart of a built-in, premise-based exchange system.

As shown in FIG. 1, the preferred embodiment of the present invention ofan intelligent network messaging agent 10 comprises an agent 12, a userdatabase 14 and an application database 16, each of which will now bedescribed in greater detail below.

At the center of the intelligent network messaging agent 10 is an agent12 which is capable of retrieving messages from various types ofmessaging services on behalf of a user. The agent 12 is a server havingapplications that can perform an action or bring about a certain resulton behalf of a user or another agent. The use of agents in computernetworks to accomplish specific tasks are well-known.

The agent 12 maintains a user database 14 containing user recordsincluding a list of messaging services subscribed to by each user andthe preferred polling interval. This information may be specified by theuser or, alternatively, may be obtained by observing specific messagingservices a user engages with during a session.

The agent 12 also maintains an application database 16 comprising alibrary of protocols including the various accessing methods,authentication procedures, and feature sets required to interact withvarious messaging systems.

The application database 16 should include protocols to access businessvoice messaging systems 22, call answering services 24, and homeanswering devices 26 that have remote retrieval capability. Theapplication database 16 should further include protocols to variouse-mail systems, such as internet mail 28 via an internet serviceprovider and business/enterprise e-mail service via a local area network30.

During a polling session, the agent 12 logs on to each messaging servicelisted in a user's record and retrieves all new messages. The agent 12then deposits the retrieved messages in the user's mailbox in the mailrepository 18. Each user of the intelligent network messaging agent hasa personal mailbox in the mail repository 18. After retrieving a newmessage, the agent 12 would notify the user of the new messages.

The agent 12 may notify the user by paging the user or calling the userat a designated number. Alternatively, the agent 12 may also leave anotification message in each of the polled mailboxes. Thus when theagent 12 finds new messages in an individual source system, it wouldretrieve the messages, integrate them into the user's mailbox in themail repository 18, delete the messages from the source system, and thenleave a single message on the source system. The notification messagemay include the time and date when the message was retrieved, and themailbox from which the message was retrieved. The notification messagewill trigger the message waiting notification capabilities of the sourcesystem. The agent 12 will instruct its memory 20 that a message has beenretrieved and to leave an identical message in the other mailboxes. Onceusers retrieve their messages from the mail repository 18, the agent 12will deactivate the notification by accessing each source system anddeleting the notification message.

A user can access the intelligent network messaging agent 10 through atelephone network 40 using a suitable customer interface 50, which canbe a voice access such as a touch-tone telephone or an on-line accesssuch as a computer. It is known in the art as to how to adapt theintelligent network messaging agent to allow a user to connect to thesystem through any conventional telephone network, such as the publicswitched telephone network or premise-based telephone network.

By voice access, users will be able to select how messages are sortedand presented; navigate through the message list; listen to the headersand addressee lists of all messages, both voice and e-mail, usingtext-to-speech capabilities; listen to individual voice mail messages;listen to text-to-speech versions of e-mail messages; save or deleteindividual messages in the mail repository; and forward or reply toindividual voice mail messages with delivery either immediately or at ascheduled later time.

By computer interface, users will be able to select how messages aresorted and presented; navigate through the message list; review theheaders of all messages; retrieve and read e-mail; retrieve and playbackvoice messages using the sound card and the player capabilities of thecomputer system; save or delete individual messages in the mailrepository; forward or reply to individual e-mail messages; and forwardor reply to individual voice mail messages with delivery eitherimmediately or at a scheduled later time.

In sum, the intelligent network messaging agent would utilize an agentthat would act on the user's behalf to retrieve both voice and e-mailmessages from each individual source, integrate them, present them in asingle mailbox, and enable the same kinds of features (and perhaps more)available in the individual mailboxes.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is illustrated a flowchart of the preferredmethod of using the system illustrated in FIG. 1. In step 100, thesystem starts the polling routine. Initially in step 110, the agent 12searches the user database 14 to determine the list of messagingservices the user subscribes to. In step 120, the agent recalls from itsapplication database 16 the procedures for accessing the first messagingsystem on the list. In step 130, the agent logs onto the first messagingservice. It then checks for new messages, step 140. If there are no newmessages, the system proceeds to step 160. If a new message is detected,agent 12 would retrieve the message by executing the proper command anddeposit that message in the user's mailbox in the mail repository 18,step 190. After retrieving the message, the agent 12 would delete themessage from the mailbox, step 200, and update its memory to indicatethat a new message has been retrieved, step 210. Having completed itspolling routine at this messaging service, the system proceeds to step160.

At step 160, the agent 12 reviews the list of messaging servicessubscribed to by the user to determine whether another messaging serviceneeds to be polled. If another messaging services still needs to bepolled, the system returns to step 120, i.e, recalling accessingprocedures for that particular messaging system. The polling process isrepeated until the agent 12 determines at step 160 that all messagingservices have been polled.

At step 220, the agent 12 checks memory 20 to verify whether any messagehas been retrieved. If no message has been retrieved in the presentpolling process, the system ends, step 230. If one or more messages wereretrieved, the agent 12 would proceed with a notification methodpre-selected by the user, such as depositing a notification message ineach polled mailbox, paging the user, or notifying the user at adesignated location via telephone call or internet mail, step 240. Oncethe agent notifies the user of the pending messages, the system ends,step 230.

As can be seen, the present invention provides a simple solution to auniversal messaging system which can retrieve all the various types ofmessages for the subscribers of the intelligent network messaging agent,save all the messages in a single mail repository for a later retrievalby the subscribers, and, most importantly, notify subscribers that thereare messages waiting in their universal mailbox.

Although an illustrative preferred embodiment has been described hereinin detail, it should be noted and will be appreciated by those skilledin the art that numerous variations may be made within the scope of thisinvention without departing from the principle of this invention andwithout sacrificing its chief advantages. For instance, while thepresent invention has been described above with respect to a singleagent 12, it should be understood that agent 12 may comprise severalagents acting cooperatively to carry out the functions of theintelligent network messaging agent.

The terms and expressions have been used herein as terms of descriptionand not terms of limitation. There is no intention to use the terms orexpressions to exclude any equivalents of features shown and describedor portions thereof and this invention should be defined in accordancewith the claims which follow.

We claim:
 1. A system for an intelligent network messaging agent forretrieving and consolidating messages from a predefined list ofmessaging services on behalf of a remote user comprising: a server witha mail repository for retrieving a message from at least one of saidmessaging services and storing the message in the mail repository, forproviding the remote user with a notification that the message has beenretrieved, and for allowing the remote user to access the message in themail repository through a customer interface; a user database residentin said server containing a plurality of user records including a listof messaging services to which a remote user has subscribed and apreferred polling interval; an application database resident in saidserver comprising a library of messaging service protocols to allowaccess to a message stored on a messaging service; and a memory forstoring an indication that a message has been retrieved from a messagingservice.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the customer interface is adigital telephone.
 3. The system of claim 2 wherein the intelligentnetwork messaging agent is adapted to allow the user to listen to atext-to-speech version of an electronic mail message.
 4. The system ofclaim 6 wherein the intelligent network messaging agent is adapted toallow the user to view a speech-to-text version of a voice message. 5.The system of claim 1 wherein the message is selected from the groupconsisting of voice messages and electronic mail messages.
 6. The systemof claim 1 wherein the customer interface is a personal computer.
 7. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the notification is a notification message inthe mailbox.
 8. The system of claim 1 wherein the notification is atelephone message.
 9. The system of claim 1 wherein the notification isa paging device message.
 10. The system of claim 1 wherein thenotification is an electronic mail message.
 11. The system of claim 1wherein the messaging service is an electronic mail repository.
 12. Thesystem of claim 1 wherein the messaging service is a local area network.13. The system of claim 1 wherein the messaging service is a callanswering service.
 14. The system of claim 1 wherein the messagingservice is a business voice messaging system.
 15. The system of claim 1wherein the messaging service is a home answering machine.
 16. A methodfor an intelligent network messaging agent for retrieving andconsolidating messages from a predefined list of messaging services onbehalf of a remote user comprising: retrieving a message from at leastone of said messaging services into a mail repository in a server andstoring the message in the mail repository; providing the remote userwith a notification that the message has been retrieved; allowing theremote user to access the message in the mail repository through acustomer interface; storing a plurality of user records on a userdatabase resident in said server, said plurality of user recordsincluding a list of messaging services to which a remote user hassubscribed and a preferred polling interval; storing a library ofmessaging service protocols on an application database resident in saidserver, and storing on a memory an indication that a message has beenretrieved from a messaging service.
 17. The method of claim 16 whereinthe customer interface is a digital telephone.
 18. The method of claim17 wherein the intelligent network messaging agent is adapted to allowthe user to listen to a text-to-speech version of an electronic mailmessage.
 19. The method of claim 16 wherein the message is selected fromthe group consisting of voice messages and electronic mail messages. 20.The method of claim 16 wherein the customer interface is a personalcomputer.
 21. The method of claim 16 wherein the intelligent networkmessaging agent is adapted to allow the user to view a speech-to-textversion of a voice message.
 22. The method of claim 16 wherein thenotification is a notification message in the mailbox.
 23. The method ofclaim 16 wherein the notification is a telephone message.
 24. The methodof claim 16 wherein the notification is a paging device message.
 25. Themethod of claim 16 wherein the notification is an electronic mailmessage.
 26. The method of claim 16 wherein the messaging service is anelectronic mail repository.
 27. The method of claim 16 wherein themessaging service is a local area network.
 28. The method of claim 16wherein the messaging service is a call answering service.
 29. Themethod of claim 16 wherein the messaging service is a business voicemessaging system.
 30. The method of claim 16 wherein the messagingservice is a home answering machine.